Beating the Boundary
A quaint and ancient Hastings tradition will be invoked on Saturday 9 May as local people resplendent in silly hats Beat the Bounds of St Mary Magdalene’s Civil Parish.
Organised by the Hastings Local History Group and the Old Hastings Preservation Society, participants will embark on a one-and-a-half-mile long walk (mainly downhill!) from the top of Amhurst Gardens next to Amhurst Road where the first boundary stone is located.
At each of the nine stones that have been identified on the route, a volunteer is ‘bumped’ three times (as with birthday bumps), and all the participants beat the stone three times with their stick, saying ‘mark, mark, mark’ (meaning ‘take notice of’).
Anyone wishing to join in is welcome and should equip themselves with a willow wand or similar stick (a garden cane would do) to beat each stone three times. Sensible walking shoes are advised – and the donning of silly hats is encouraged!
Anyone unable to do the whole circuit can choose to do a few stones, or even just one. The walk ends around 11.30 at the stone outside St Michael’s Hospice, where refreshments will be on sale in the café until 12.30pm. Participants are invited to make a cash donation to the hospice.
Beating the bounds is an ancient tradition said to have originated in pagan pre-Christian Britain more than 2,000 years ago – and was later adopted by the church in Anglo-Saxon or medieval Britain. It evolved from Roman and Celtic rituals intended to bless crops and mark territory, later becoming a Rogationtide custom to establish parish boundaries before maps were common, enabling people to know the extent of their parish, its tithes and its pastoral authority.
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